OBITUARY: Ray McCauley — charismatic pastor and controversial ...

Ray McCauley will be remembered most as being the controversial and charismatic pastor who brought Rhema Ministries to SA, to form the single largest church congregation in Southern Africa.

McCauley founded Rhema Bible Church in SA in 1979, emerging as one of the country’s most important white neo-Pentecostal leaders and becoming president in 1985 of the International Fellowship of Christian Churches, SA’s largest association of charismatic and neo-Pentecostal churches.

He was a man of many faces — a prominent religious leader as senior pastor of Rhema Bible Church in the country and co-chair of the National Interfaith Council of SA, an author and former champion bodybuilder.

From nightclub bouncer to bodybuilding

Born in Johannesburg on October 1 1949, he took a keen interest in bodybuilding during his youth. He walked away with the Mr SA title and took part in the Mr Universe bodybuilding championships in London in 1974, where he finished in third place. He also worked as a nightclub bouncer for a while.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian in 2009, he described several life-altering experiences, including his participation in the Mr Universe competition in 1974.

“When I came third in the Mr Universe, I realised that I was just as empty. There was no fulfilment. That, actually, the goal kept me going more than achieving it. And that made me look inward,” he said.

He took up bodybuilding at 13, impressed by pioneering English bodybuilder Reg Park and compelled by “always wanting to fit in. I’d always had to watch my weight, always had a big appetite. I could eat a lot and had to discipline myself. But I was always impressed with the impact of the guy who had big muscles: the beach thing, the girls’ thing, [I had] that type of image in my head.”

McCauley attributed another life-altering experience while he was ministering to recovering drug addicts in Johannesburg to what compelled him to start the Rhema Church. He attended bible college with his first wife Lyndie at Rhema Bible Training Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1978 and 1979. On his return to SA, he and his wife started Rhema Bible Church under Rhema Ministries SA in the home of his parents, Jimmy and Doreen. His first congregation was just 13 people.

However, word of his compelling preaching style grew, and membership swelled proportionately, so much so that the church moved into the former Constantia Cinema in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Under the leadership of Ray and Lyndie McCauley, Rhema Bible Church again outgrew its premises and moved to a warehouse in Jan Smuts Avenue in Randburg, and then to its final home in 1985 in a 5,000-seater auditorium in Randburg, Johannesburg.

The new church was dedicated on June 16 1985 by Dr Kenneth E Hagin, the late founder of Rhema Ministries in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The auditorium was later upgraded to more than 7,500 seats to accommodate the meteoric growth of the church. Today the church has more than 45,000 members, and is the single largest church congregation in Southern Africa. McCauley also had sold-out evangelical shows at the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall in London.

A controversial figure

McCauley was also a controversial figure, with many of his critics alleging that he led a millionaire’s lifestyle. McCauley defended himself on numerous occasions with the argument that he only earned the salary of “a CEO of a medium-sized company”.

Rhema Ministries was also accused of being a proponent of the prosperity gospel. A shrewd businessman, McCauley headed a multimillion-rand empire that, during 2008, drew a net income of more than R68m (more than R60.5m from tithes and offerings) and held assets of close to R33.5m.

In 2000 the divorce from his first wife, Lyndie, caused great controversy, resulting in a schism in the church, with a large portion of the congregation breaking away.

According to the ministry, Lyndie McCauley’s divorce proceedings had no basis on biblical grounds. Shortly after the divorce, McCauley met two-time divorcee Zelda Ireland and they married in July 2001. In January 2010, Rhema Bible Church announced their separation, with Ireland filing for divorce. A few years later, the couple remarried in November 2013.

McCauley’s mostly white, neo-Pentecostal Rhema Church became politically engaged shortly before the end of apartheid.

In 1990, representatives of 97 churches, including Rhema and the Apostolic Faith Mission, signed the anti-apartheid Rustenburg Declaration. At the signing, McCauley apologised for not taking a stance against apartheid earlier. As apartheid was ushered out, McCauley and his associates were involved in various events that helped with the peaceful transition to democracy in 1994.

In 1991, McCauley served on the steering committee for the National Peace Accord with Frank Chikane; and also as a behind-the-scenes negotiator for the ANC. He also interacted with leading churchmen like Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

In 2000, the Rhema Church complex was used for the funeral of Alfred Nzo, who had served as the secretary-general of the ANC between 1969 and 1991 and as SA’s foreign affairs minister from 1994 to 1999.

In 2009 McCauley caused waves politically when he invited the then-unelected president of SA, Jacob Zuma, to speak at a Sunday morning service. Many of the ANC’s most senior figures also attended, leading to accusations of political bias.

When Zuma took office in 2009, McCauley formed a new interfaith organisation called the National Interfaith Leadership Council, which subsequently merged with the National Religious Leaders Forum to form the National Interfaith Council of SA in 2011. McCauley and the interfaith organisations he represented publicly defended Zuma and the ANC government on several highly controversial matters.

Spiritual mentor

McCauley was a spiritual mentor to many individuals, but possibly the most (in)famous was former SA cricket captain Hansie Cronje, who was banned from cricket for life after admitting to taking money to fix matches involving SA. He died in a plane crash on June 1 2002.

In an article in The Guardian in June 2000, Cronje admitted to making a confession to McCauley, in which he laid the blame for his misconduct firmly at Satan’s door. The confession made its way to the official commission of inquiry that was instituted after the accusations against Cronje.

It was Kepler Wessels, then the captain of the SA side, who introduced McCauley to the team during a Test match against India at the Wanderers. When Cronje succeeded Wessels as captain, McCauley became a familiar figure around the SA cricket team and was acknowledged as the sides unofficial chaplain.

When McCauley was preaching in Australia or Britain, Cronje would also ask him to give the team motivational and devotional talks. Cronje was never ashamed to call McCauley his pastor and would sometimes stay at the McCauley home. When there was a Test match in Johannesburg, Cronje would make every effort to try to get to Rhema to attend a Sunday night service.

McCauley wrote several books, among them Our God Is An Awesome God, Walk-In Faith, Making Your World Different, The Secret Place, Expect More Bottom Line, Choose This Day, Live Long, Die Young, Power & Passion, Holy Ghost Fire and Purpose Powered People. Ron Steele wrote his biography, Destined To Win (1986).

McCauley leaves his wife Zelda, and his son by Lyndie, Joshua McCauley, who is senior pastor of Redemption Church SA, and three grandchildren.